Connection Interrupted Issue

[Bishop]

Good day, everyone!

I've finally created this account here, and this is my first post here, I believe. So. I've been having an issue for the last two months with my quake3 client, and before this issue appeared I have had no issues and I could play flawlessly.

What's the word about?

I've been getting "Connection Interrupted" on the unfreeze server, while I could easily send and messages through say: and see players moving around, I was stuck and I couldn't move. This happens every like 20 seconds, sometimes every 2 minutes, sometimes every 2 seconds. Therefore, it's hard to tell the exact interval. My ping literally raises to 999. Trust me, I have no internet issues and no issues with my ISP. This only happens to quake 3. I have windows 7 (if that means anyhow). I don't know how to fix this, I tried different commands like setting the Packetdup to 0 and similar stuff. It has slightly helped me, but the issue would appear again later.

It is literally unplayable like this.

I appreaciate any help.

[adminless]

hello and welcome to the forum

from the location you're reaching this and your description looks to me like the typical issue of a constrained upstream channel where the server packets are reaching you just fine on the downstream direction while the packets coming from you towards the server are getting throttled on the upstream direction on your end. general "internet" traffic is highly asymetrical (hence the adsl technologies) in favor of the client downstream channel while typical game traffic is (quasi) symmetrical which explains why you may be able to navigate just fine and only experience this issue while on Quake III Arena. for that reason, I'd suggest you to get a clean copy of the provided official UnFreeZe client, ioq3v6-unfreeze-client-v20.5.zip (remember to place your pak0.pk3 file inside it), and run the game through the lowend or legacy builds which have lesser upstream requirements and I'd expect that should fix your issue.

hope that helps

[Bishop]

Hey!

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate the help! I'll make sure to let you know if this will fix the issue, as soon as possible. Cheers.

[Bishop]

hello and welcome to the forum

from the location you're reaching this and your description looks to me like the typical issue of a constrained upstream channel where the server packets are reaching you just fine on the downstream direction while the packets coming from you towards the server are getting throttled on the upstream direction on your end. general "internet" traffic is highly asymetrical (hence the adsl technologies) in favor of the client downstream channel while typical game traffic is (quasi) symmetrical which explains why you may be able to navigate just fine and only experience this issue while on Quake III Arena. for that reason, I'd suggest you to get a clean copy of the provided official UnFreeZe client, ioq3v6-unfreeze-client-v20.5.zip (remember to place your pak0.pk3 file inside it), and run the game through the lowend or legacy builds which have lesser upstream requirements and I'd expect that should fix your issue.

hope that helps

It works perfectly, it has solved the connection interrupted issue. I appreciate your help, and now I can play this game normally.
Now I only need to copy-paste my previous config. Thanks!

[Bishop]

Uh-uh. Here I am again. Appears that it worked fine in the beginning, now it's still present. However, the issue is less frequent but it's still very painful when it appears. I tried both legacy and lowend, and they all have this issue... It's still 'better than it was'.

[adminless]

yes I noticed that you was still lagging as I was monitoring the servers. I checked your connection meanwhile and I found no issues so I can assure you that is nonetheless a issue on your end of the connection as I explained. definitively that setup should work even by 2010 standards let alone by 2020 standards. I'm assuming you're on a old twisted pair copper line, a.k.a. a adls line, I'd also suggest you to unplug your router for a sensible amount of time (i.e. 5 mins) and ensure your phone cable (rj-11) is firmly attached (detach it first and then reattach it) just in case though unfortunately at this point I think that most likely than not you're unlikely to really solve this issue without reaching your isp customer service and asking for a line check up. in addition if that seemed to help but not "enough" you may also try reducing the game settings even more by doing "\com_framelimiter 1" in one of the ioq3v6 lowend or legacy builds and see if that works around your issue.

[Bishop]

I don't know honestly. I am wirelessly connected to the internet and the issue is the same with or without the cable, even when I restarted the router for a longer period of time. Contacting my ISP would be interesting because I don't experience such an issue with any other game. I don't even lag in other games. I didn't change my ISP or anything, setup is still the same pretty much. I didn't experience this issue here like 3-4 months ago, and I've played on the server for two years. I've seen people struggling with this same exact issue in Quake Live and Quake 3 (I can't find a working solution). I might probably be wrong here. Was the server migrated somewhere else like 2 to 3 months ago? And of course, I appreciate your help. Thanks once again!

[adminless]

yes, that's what I was thinking about now when I re-read your message and you mentioned problems started a few months ago. highly unlikely and still potentially a issue on your end but it could be related with a server network configuration change I made, it makes sense. anyways, I just made some changes now to this configuration could you try now and see if the problem is gone to rule out that?

[Bishop]

I believe that it might be an issue on my end and I'll investigate that, anyway. Sorry I couldn't respond any sooner because I was pretty tired yesterday from work. I played this morning for an hour and I can surely say that it's a lot better, but the issue is still there. The issue is now infrequent, but it still happens every 5ish minutes and my connection gets interrupted for several seconds. I need to wait for several minutes for it to go fully away. However, now it's more playable.

All in all, It's better thanks to the changes you've made. I don't know if you can fix this entirely because it might be a problem on my end... Also, I am not entirely sure if this is true or not, but I've seen a few other players struggle with this issue on this server (potentially).

Thanks

[adminless]

yes I saw that some minutes ago and this time I was at the desk and monitored the whole thing and I can tell that just as I expected from the begging the problem here is exactly what I told you, first the packets from your client started to come up late, then at bursts and ultimately didn't even arrive at all. exactly why this is happening I can't tell, it could be a problem with your computer, may be a virus, a problem with your router (likely), a problem with the wire (not very likely) or just something else in the middle. I can't tell from here but what I can tell you is that the problem is not that the packets are getting lost on the server end. just as I told you, I'd strongly advise you to just start by having a call to your isp customer support for a line check up and explain your issue if that's unsuccessful then may be request a equipment change (i.e. a modem/router replacement). in the mean time, I'd also strongly suggest you to run a full computer check up for virus/malware as it could even potentially be that and/or try with another computer if available, that would rule out the network issue. in addition if a 4g/lte or similar mobile phone/plan is available you could as well try with a mobile connection (usb tethering) and that would rule out the computer issue and pin point this to the connection instead.

for the rest I can tell you that yesterday following your complain I double/triple checked the server at several different time frames for hours and found no issues nor there's any knowledge of other significant connectivity issues beyond what is to expect from the public internet at the time of writing.

[Bishop]

I'd strongly advise you to just start by having a call to your isp customer support for a line check up and explain your issue if that's unsuccessful then may be request a equipment change (i.e. a modem/router replacement). in the mean time, I'd also strongly suggest you to run a full computer check up for virus/malware as it could even potentially be that and/or try with another computer if available, that would rule out the network issue. in addition if a 4g/lte or similar mobile phone/plan is available you could as well try with a mobile connection (usb tethering) and that would rule out the computer issue and pin point this to the connection instead.

I'll do as you said. I wanted to experiment by sharing my mobile 4g connection with my PC, and it turns out even then I have this issue. I've launched a full virus scan, which will probably last for two to three hours. After the scan ends, I'll contact my ISP (in case Kaspersky doesn't show any viruses). I have several other PCs, but I only use them for work.

Interesting thing is that I only have this issue only with Quake 3, meanwhile, I can run other multiplayer games with no issues. Could this mean anything?

Thanks for the help.

[adminless]

that's rare, that may seem to suggest that then the connection itself (physically) should be fine (so probably no need to replace network equipment) and the problem is either in the middle or in the computer. it would also be interesting to see the output of a mtr (download) against the server run from that computer. may be that throws some light on where the problem is taking place. last, that could just mean a particular problem within your isp and the server route (i.e. in between), unfortunately I'm not aware of many other clients connecting from your isp/location at the time of writing for comparison so that would require to check some mtr.

[Bishop]

Sorry but, what do I need to type in the host section of the MTR software?

[adminless]

unfreeze.fpsclasico.de for example and let it run for some time, like half a hour or so, though I've been digging this further on my end and I'm starting to pin point the lag at your isp endpoint routers but it would be interesting to see if that correspond with your end (i.e. you should start to see high numbers on the frist hops).

[Bishop]

Right, so, I scanned the entirety of my PC (1.6 million files). Kaspersky detected no malwares/viruses. I assume I should contact my ISP now, which I'll do in a couple of days. I'll experiment with other settings on the server, I'm curious what's the issue. Cheers.

unfreeze.fpsclasico.de for example and let it run for some time, like half a hour or so, though I've been digging this further on my end and I'm starting to pin point the lag at your isp endpoint routers but it would be interesting to see if that correspond with your end (i.e. you should start to see high numbers on the frist hops).

Copy that. It's running now in the background.